Turning away from ane earlier partnership with Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Corp. announced that it has acquired a 5% interest in Symbian Ltd., which has developed a rival operating system and is backed by an international consortium of cell phone manufacturers.

The agreement by Samsung to to purchase a 5% stake in Symbian, which was suggests the wireless industry does not want to be controlled by Microsoft.

Last October, Samsung and Microsoft announced an agreement to work on development of smart phones. So much for that. It appears that Samsung is charting another course with their interest in Symbian. Cell phone makers are very aware of what Microsoft did to the Desktop PC market. It appears that they do not want to be dominated that way by the Redmond Washington company.